Shutdowns Always Backfire--Especially on Republicans

[DonViejo]

A look back at three recent major shutdowns shows they always fail—and they’ve hurt Republicans more often than Democrats.

Brian Riedl
12.25.18 9:41 PM ET

President Trump and House Republicans have shut down part of the government in hopes of forcing Senate Democrats to accept $5 billion in border wall funding. This mistake will almost surely backfire on the GOP.

I say this not as a gleeful liberal, but rather as a conservative federal budget economist who has spent the past 17 years in the Washington DC trenches fighting for spending restraint.

This is the fourth significant government shutdown in 25 years. During the three previous shutdowns, the party that held government funding legislation hostage to additional demands experienced a nasty public backlash that inevitably led to a humiliating surrender.

Despite those past failures, Republican voters support the current shutdown by a 2-to-1 margin. As in past shutdowns, many conservatives—egged on by talk radio and aggressive television personalities—hope that shutting down much of the government can force Democratic lawmakers to capitulate to their ends.

Instead, shutdowns backfire for four reasons:

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/shutdowns-always-backfireespecially-on-republicans?ref=home

[LonePirate]

1. Shutdowns seldom happen before elections and are typically forgotten when the next election arrives.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. I remembering thinking what a waste of opportunity for the Republicans,

led by Newt Gingrich. They gained control of Congress after decades of Democratic majorities. Newt resorted to a government shut-down to ram through unpopular legislation. Instead of compromise, bipartisanship, and patience, Newt and his republican cohorts used the shutdown as blackmail and leverage to get what they wanted. They failed. They ran an end run around the democratic process and paid for it. Unfortunately the lesson wasn't learned and here we are.